Monday, January 10, 2011

A starving five-year-old pit bull is being cared for at a canine foster home three days after a Good Samaritan found her staggering along a ditch near Courtice. Called Gracie by staff with the Humane Society of Durham Region, the dog is the third emaciated pit bull taken into care over the past six weeks, investigator Debbie Houghton said. “It happens all the time,” Houghton said Monday of the coincidence of the trio surfacing close together under different circumstances. Though they did not appear to have been physically abused, the dog’s owners left them without sufficient food and they were in distress, she said. “You have to do the right thing,” Houghton said. “You don’t just abandon them. “If an animal starts losing weight due to emaciation, you don’t just leave it in a ditch.” A woman, who spotted Gracie between Courtice Rd. and Hancock Rd. around 10:30 a.m. Saturday, took her to a clinic but was refused service, likely because she lacked money, Houghton said.
From the dog’s lack of frostbite and cleanliness, “I don’t think she was out there a long time,” the investigator said. “I think someone placed it there.” Brought to the Wentworth St. shelter in Whitby, Gracie was checked for medical and social issues, “and is doing well,” Houghton said. “She’s been around people and loves cats and dogs.” Chester, the second foundling, was rescued a month ago from an empty farmhouse at Utica, west of Port Perry, by someone who knew the pit bull’s owner had moved to British Columbia. He also was “pretty emaciated,” Houghton said, adding she was not given the dog-dumping owner’s name. Due to the investigation into the third dog’s case, she didn’t reveal details of how 10-year-old Percy came to the shelter in late November, but said he also was starving. “They’re all great dogs,” Houghton said. Once tests are complete, Percy and Chester will be offered out for fostering and eventual adoption. Anyone with information should call the Humane Society at 905-665-7430.
ian.robertson@sunmedia.ca
*The Toronto Sun

Gracie, a five-year-old emaciated pit bull was found Saturday staggering in a ditch near Courtice. (RUBY RICHARDS/Humane Society of Durham Region)